Still Trying

Let's see, I've gone through another two landlords since I last wrote. The first had an old deli that would be perfect - in an industrial area which would have given me a great rate, but the landlord got cold feet since I'm a startup. He was going to give me a 3 year lease. Period. No option to renew. I cannot imagine dumping close to $100,000 into a space that I will most likely get booted out of in 3 years and have to go through this process again. Even worse, my clients would possibly have to find somewhere else temporarily and at that time I may have competition. Not a good deal. The second one was a small strip mall in a great location in West Sacramento. It was a Round Table Pizza place and 2400 sq. ft. I looked inside - the place is filthy. It is dark and dirty and not set up the way I want, but could be cleaned up and made to work. However, in that same mall was a Thai restaurant looking to expand. We put a deal together - the Thai restaurant move to the pizza place, then I take the Thai restaurant. It was smaller and next door was an 800 sq. ft. place that I could use as the classroom. In the end the Thai people backed out because they weren't sure they could make the rent.

I'm more than worn out. I've been looking for almost a year and nothing has come through. I've decided to go for the pizza place even though it is larger than I want and needs more work than I expected when opening the kitchen. I need to open. I've been getting more calls/email asking where I'm located and when I'll open. I have to do this whether or not it is the best business decision. I suspect it will take more money than I've budgeted but it is at least a working kitchen and not a cold shell.